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Jane Austen enjoyed quite the career as a rom-com screenwriter even before the form or the term existed, and even if you’ve not read this you’ve most probably seen some adaptation or other. Unusually, it is Clueless that is the most recent and highly regarded of them, although another straight adaptation starring Gwyneth Paltrow is probably the better comparison. In the modern age of movies about women being made by women, this version of the novel stays true to the setting (Highbury, which presumably is the same Islington Highbury before the football). It’s a straight costume drama with a slick, classic look and solid central performances. Anya Taylor Joy is the title character: wealthy and seemingly immune to the pressure to wed, she is always sorting out other people’s romantic tragedy in a society where a tragic woman of a certain age (well actually youth ) is a family problem. And when it comes to being set up financially, the poverty of a bad marital situation is equa...

Ben Elton’s hit TV series , which owes much to the performance of David Mitchell, is named after an insult thrown at Shakespeare by a man who is probably only known for insulting the Bard. Shakespeare was apparently an uneducated actor, and yet he wrote dozens of some of the greatest plays in the language. But he is ripe for humour, and Elton has developed his satire on the modern world to the pre-Elizabethan period of William’s life: David Mitchell takes to the stage for the first time, with Gemma Whelan as Kate and Rob Rouse as Bottom. The story, which is not based on anything seen on the TV, involves two “Moorish” twin washed up on English shores, separately looking for protection from the “Puri-titties”. Rachel Summers as Desiree, assumes the identity of a man and attracts the affection of plucky Kate. Kate’s activism mostly extends to wishing to tread the boards—but as everyone knows, you can only be an actor if you’ve got a ‘cod-dangle’—although she has also liberated Burb...

Garlanded with awards and praise, this is perhaps the most anticipated foreign language films to receive a wide-release. It’s a South Korean movie which is tense and ultimately quite violent, as well as having a beautiful visual style and a message about poverty and the prejudice against those without money who work for those with plenty. It’s the story of a family that eke out a meagre living on the streets of Seoul—at one point the job is folding pizza boxes. Mother and father Chung-sook and Ki-taek, and their young adult offspring, son Ki-woo and daughter Ki-jung eventually get an opportunity to occupy the house as they get jobs as unrelated labourers. When the Park family are out, the Kims can make use of the house. However that doesn’t last. What makes the film good is the wit. This is a funny film about people with nothing, and when they get to sneak into the house during the Park family’s camping trip the audacity of their temporary social bump-up is the kind of fun that’...

Fred Rogers was an icon of American children’s television, but unlike Sesame Street it’s not transferred to this country. But you don’t need to be aware of his programme— Mr Rogers’ Neighbourhood —to pick up the story. Mr Rogers dresses up in a cardigan and casual shoes and introduces his audience to a specific home in the miniature neighbourhood. And since the film is about an Esquire journalist who’s commissioned to write a short piece about national heroes. So the film begins with Rogers introducing his friend Lloyd, “Somebody has hurt my friend Lloyd - and not just on the face.” The Playschool- like formula introduces the journalist’s picture from behind a cardboard door. (I always hated when Playschool went outside!) Lloyd Vogel ( Matthew Rees ) is a journalist with a reputation for doing hatchet-jobs on his subject. He is shown injured because he’s gone with his wife and baby daughter to his sister’s wedding, and got into a fight with his drunken father. We go back to T...